Sleep deprivation, bad for learning

[dutchman]

Not like our common sense could not have figured this out but

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070211/hl_afp/healthscienceeducation_070211183635

"lack of sleep appears to disrupt functioning of the hippocampus, an area of the brain that formulates new memories."

"These results demonstrate that an absence of prior sleep substantially compromises the neural and behavioural capacity for committing new experiences to memory," says the paper.

"It therefore appears that sleep before learning is critical in preparing the human brain for next-day memory formation -- a worrying finding considering society's increasing erosion of sleep time."

I wonder why residency programs choose to maintain the opposite is the case.

 

[psipsina]

The good news is that the average person only needs 6 hours, not the 8-9 that most of society thinks of as a good night sleep, to not endanger memory formation and recall. 6 hours is totally doable except on call of course.

It would be lovely if science actually ruled the way we train our scientists, but alas the system seems to be stuck in a no win situation, sure they can cut the residents hours down a bit, but who takes on the extra hours . . . the attendings . . . or they have to buy more attendings and we all know whats going to win when its money vs. common sense. . . especially in corporate hospitals where the priority seems to be the stockholders not the doctors or their patients.

 

[doctorp82]

It would be lovely if science actually ruled the way we train our scientists,

But, alas, in order to rule scientists, you take business management and administration courses, and I'm not sure if they teach evidence-based practice there.

 

[sirus_virus]

Oh really?

 

[ENTis4me]

no kidding. im glad we're graduating at a time when they've restricted the maximum hours per week during residency to 80. i can't imagine having to do 120 hour work weeks.

 

[da8s0859q]

no kidding. im glad we're graduating at a time when they've restricted the maximum hours per week during residency to 80. i can't imagine having to do 120 hour work weeks.

Wonder if they'll ever drop that, too...